Davies was a part of the Copenhagen School, along with Niels Peter Lemche, Keith Whitelam, and Thomas L. Thompson. They were dubbed biblical minimalists by colleagues with different opinions from theirs, a loosely knit group of scholars who hold that the Bible is a composite work, and that those books in the Hebrew Bible which narrate the history of the ancient Israelites should be viewed first and foremost as literature, as the invention of postexilicscribes who sought to unify the postexilic Jerusalemite community by creating a past for it. This group of biblical scholars suggest that all characters and events in these stories of Israel's past should be viewed with skepticism unless they are corroborated by epigraphic or archaeological evidence. Due to Davies' perceived manifest anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli attitude, fellow UK academic researcher and leading PEF member, David M . Jacobson, characterised him as a "self-avowed intellectual antisemite".[8]
Christ myth debate
In 2012, Davies weighed in on the Christ myth theory debate in the article Does Jesus Exist? at bibleinterp.com. He applauded the book Is This Not the Carpenter?: The Question of the Historicity of the Figure of Jesus edited by Thomas L. Thompson writing "the rather fragile historical evidence for Jesus of Nazareth should be tested to see what weight it can bear," criticizing scholars like Bart D. Ehrman who write with near certainty about Jesus' existence, and concluding "I don’t think, however, that in another 20 years there will be a consensus that Jesus did not exist, or even possibly didn’t exist, but a recognition that his existence is not entirely certain would nudge Jesus scholarship towards academic respectability."[9]
Notable works
1QM: the War Scroll from Qumran: Its Structure and History (Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1977)
The Damascus Document (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1982) ISBN0-905774-51-5
Cities of the Biblical World: Qumran (Cambridge: Lutterworth, 1982)
Mark Daniel Carroll R.; David J. A. Clines; Philip R. Davies, eds. (1995). The Bible in human society : essays in honour of John Rogerson. Sheffield: Sheffield Acad. Press. ISBN9781850755685.
Exum, J. Cheryl; Moore, Stephen D., eds. (1998). Biblical studies/cultural studies : The Third Sheffield Colloquium. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press. ISBN9781850759706.
Alastair G. Hunter; Phillip R. Davies, eds. (2002). Sense and sensitivity : essays on reading the Bible in memory of Robert Carroll. London [u.a.]: Sheffield Acad. Press. ISBN9780826460493.
Philip R. Davies, ed. (2002). First person : essays in biblical autobiography. London [u.a.]: Sheffield Acad. Press. ISBN9781841272450.
Davies, Philip R. (2007). Rogerson, John (ed.). The Old Testament world (Repr. ed.). London [u.a.]: T & T Clark. ISBN9780567084880.
Davies, Philip R. (2008). Memories of ancient Israel : an introduction to biblical history – ancient and modern. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN9780664232887.
Linafelt, Tod; Camp, Claudia V.; Beal, Timothy, eds. (2010). The fate of King David : the past and present of a biblical icon. New York: T & T Clark. ISBN9780567515469.